more reasons I’d follow your blog

Since my last post of reasons I’d follow your blog went down so well and a lot of you guys said you found it useful, I thought I’d do another one! Here’s another 8 reasons I’d follow your blog…

P.S. – in no way am I saying that if you don’t do these then you’re not a good blogger, these are just a few things that make me happy when looking at other people’s blogs! ♡

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1). Good picturesOne of the most important things for me with my blog is to have good pictures. Good lighting and clear images aren’t only just nice to look at, but they also give people the impression that you’re a professional (kinda) blogger and that you take things seriously. If you’re posting a haul and all of your images are blurry and in dimmed lighting, no one is going to be very impressed and it also ruins it for the reader, because we can’t see what you’re hauling! Even if it takes longer than you expected, taking the time out to actually work on your photos and make them look as good as possible will really pay off in the long run.

2). You have a good visual theme There’s nothing worse than clicking on someone’s blog and seeing every colour and style under the sun and not knowing where to look first. Again, having a good visual theme shows of professionalism and draws people in, it intrigues them to actually hang around and take a look at your blog. You could have a minimalistic theme, a black and white theme, a vintage theme etc. – there’s so many to choose from. Of course, switch up your theme as much as you want because you absolutely don’t have to stick with the same one forever, just try not include them all on your blog at once!

3). You ask questions to your readersI admit that I don’t do this one myself as often as I’d like to, at first it was because I was too shy (I didn’t think anyone would read my posts in the first place and therefore, who would answer my questions) and now I don’t really have any excuse apart from I either forget, or I write a long rambling post about my thoughts and don’t really know what to ask you guys afterwards! I always think it’s nice when I get to the end of reading a post and there’s a nice question for me to answer at the end of it, it makes me feel like the person who created the post actually wants to know what I have to say, and it definitely makes me feel more engaged as the reader!

4). I feel like I can get to know you personally…Which leads me on to my next point! I love to see a blog and get the feeling that I could actually get to know and become friends with the person behind it. I think of you guys as friends and would like to think I know a lot of you on a first name basis, I’ve already met so many amazing people from starting this blog and I can only hope that the number continues to grow, because I really love getting to know you guys. If I look at your blog and can see that you’re super friendly and personal with your readers, you’re definitely going to get a follow from me!

5). You include social media linksThis kind of ties in with my last point of getting to know someone on a more personal / friend basis, but it’s always nice when people include social media links on their blogs. Not only does it look professional, because we all know that bloggers need to branch out their following! But it’s also a great way for me to get to know the person you are outside of blogging, I want to scroll through your Instagram and see what you get up to on the weekends, I want to like your Facebook page and retweet the funny things you post on Twitter – it’s always great to get to know the person behind the blog, and I feel like sharing your social media is a great way to do that!

6). You get involvedOne of the things I mentioned in my first post about reasons I’d follow your blog was that the most important thing for me was interacting with your followers, and this goes for not only just replying to the people that comment on your posts, but actually getting involved and commenting on theirs too. It’s so important to read and look at what other people have created and comment and interact with them, just like they do for you. How can you expect people to keep reading and commenting on your blog posts when you pay absolutely no attention to theirs? Complete the tags people nominate you for, answer the questions in the awards people give to you, comment on other people’s blog posts, become part of the community – get involved!

7). You’re a little personalOne of the struggles for me when starting my blog was that in real life (or virtual life, depending on how you look at it) I basically type like a 9 year old – if you look at my Twitter account or read my text messages, you’ll see that I basically abbreviate all of my words and use a lot of slang (I also might throw a few swearwords in there too), but when starting my blog I didn’t necessarily want to do this – I wanted to be myself of course, but I thought that if I was going to start blogging I had to be absolutely prim and professional at all times. (Reality check: this is absolutely not the case). After seeing other bloggers write their posts as if they were just chatting with an old friend, (aka not using perfect punctuation / grammar / throwing in the odd swearword) it made me feel so much more relaxed and comfortable when writing my own posts because of course I wanted my personality to come through in all of them, but I felt like I couldn’t do that if I had to write ‘properly’ all the time. If I go onto your blog and see that your personality completely shines through in your posts and I haven’t suddenly entered a world of strict, impersonal writing then I’m absolutely going to follow your blog. (I hope this point makes sense because I’ve just read back over it and feel like I’ve rambled!)

8). You include links in your postsLast but not least, you include links in your posts! Who doesn’t love a good link, I can throw one in here or here…or maybe even here (I’ll stop now). What I love about links is that if I’m reading a post of yours and you suddenly mention something that you spoke about a few weeks ago…link me up!! There’s nothing wrong with helping your readers to navigate things properly, I always find it so helpful when people mention something and are like hey, I already made a post about this so I’m not going to go into it again but if you want to read all about it then you can find that post here. – Get what I’m saying? Of course, this isn’t a deal breaker for whether I’d follow your blog or not…I’m not going to not follow you if you don’t use links in your posts (because that would be ridiculous of me) but all I’m saying is…it helps. *wink wink*

(party game: take a shot for every time I’ve said the word ‘link’ in this point)

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And that’s all I’ve got for now loves! Let me know if you’d like another one of these soon because I really enjoy writing them, and I hope these were at least a little bit helpful!

The reason I love your blog so much is because it’s done with such a personal touch! Also, still waiting for your recommended list of bloggers to follow – I struggle to find blogs I find an attachment too so much!!

When I first started blogging I used to just stick to posts without photos because I hated photography. Then I realised how much better posts are with photos and I ended up getting into photography and now I absolutely love it!
Aleeha xXxhttp://www.halesaaw.co.uk/

I, personally, like personal blogs, too. I feel like there’s so much fashion & travel blogs lately – and I don’t have anything against them – but I appreciate those people who are really open with their blogs and you just really feel connected with them. 🙂

Again, I agree with all of the points! Using photos was something I avoided until recently because I had a terrible phone that no matter what lighting I had, they were still.. well shit hahah! But now I have a new phone, I’ve got no excuse but to step up my photo game! Anyway, this is such a lovely well written post, as always! xxx

#1 is something I want to work on. It’s just so hard for me because a lot of times I have no choice but to resort to taking photos in terrible lighting (like with my recent haul post). With my schedule, I actually see very little daylight, which of course is the best light. I’m asleep and then at work during the daylight, and it’s night when I get off work. If I get new products on Monday, I don’t want to wait all the way until the weekend to take photos because I prefer to post every two to three days on my blog if possible. However, I still want to try to improve on that somehow.

I completely get that! You don’t want to wait for ages when you’ve pretty much got a post ready to go. Do you work on weekends? If you have a post where you really want to concentrate on photos maybe you could post that on a Saturday or Sunday so that then you’ve got time to take to work on the photos like you want to? 💞xx

Loved reading this just as much as the first part (which was actually the first blog post of yours that I discovered!). I can definitely agree that personality is super important – regardless of how ‘professional’ a blog may come across, if I cannot connect to the person behind it I most likely will not come back. I think that people think you have to be super impersonal and strict in your writing to be a good blogger, when in many cases it’s the other way round! xox

Thanks lovely, how ironic that that’s how you found me!! Personality behind a blog is everything for me because the individuality of the person really separates their blog from everyone else, it’s a great thing when bloggers open up to connect with their readers! xxx

i never asked questions because i never felt like my blog was big enough or people would answer, but your point makes total sense! it will bring us together and make us more comfortable with each other, which blogging is all about.

“Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that’s why I made works of art.”